The Hounds Are Coming to The Gifted

[SPOILERS for those not caught up on The Gifted ahead.]

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The Hounds, a group of mutants from the fan-favorite X-Men storyline “Days of Future Past”, are coming to The Gifted. Over the course of the season, the involvement of the Hounds has been teased, and was finally confirmed during Monday night’s episode, “boXed in”.

“boXed in” put Polaris (Emma Dumont) and Eclipse (Sean Teale) in a difficult situation after they captured Turner (Coby Bell) and failed to gain any information from him. The mutants looked to Dreamer (Elena Satine) for help, who used her powers to manipulate his memories. During this scene, we were shown glimpses from inside Turner’s mind, including a document marked with the same symbol that was tattooed on the arm of Thunderbird’s friend, Pulse (Zach Roerig.) Written on the document was the word “Hounds.”

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X-Men fans may recognize the name, as the Hounds were a major factor in the dystopian future established in “Days of Future Past”, which served as the inspiration for the movie of the same name. In “Days of Future Past”, a group of brainwashed mutants known as the Hounds hunted down their fellow mutants to capture and imprison them in concentration camps. The Hounds were led by an evil cyborg called Ahab. Rachel Summers, an important character in the story, was turned into a Hound, though her psychic powers allowed her to break through her conditioning. When Rachel left her timeline to visit the present, she was followed by Ahab, who was eventually killed by Magneto.

Ahab’s civilian identity, Dr. Roderick Campbell, has already appeared on The Gifted, played by Garret Dillahunt. It was revealed in the comics that before becoming Ahab, Dr. Campbell was a seemingly normal psychologist and colleague of Dr. Moira McTaggart. The character eventually learned that he was fated to become Ahab, and struggled to prevent that future from coming to pass. It’s unclear if he was successful.

What we know about Dillahunt’s Dr. Campbell is that he’s a scientist working on a secret project for Sentinel Services. The character also has an interest in doing research on mutant siblings, particularly Laura (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White), though his reasons have yet to be revealed.

The revelation that the Hounds will be a part of The Gifted also ties in to the storyline surrounding Pulse, who switched sides and used his powers to help Sentinel Services. It remains to be seen how many mutants aside from Pulse have been turned into Hounds. It’s certainly plausible that the Hounds could become Sentinel Services’ most deadly weapon against the mutant underground.

Fans’ questions about Dr. Campbell and the Hounds are likely to be answered soon, as next week’s episode will see Thunderbird spearheading a mission to learn the truth about Pulse.

The Gifted continues with “got your siX”, on Monday, November 6th, on FOX.